Classic rock band Foreigner announced the Juke Box Heroes tour to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. They are one of the best-selling bands of all time with worldwide sales of more than 80 million records and 14 top 20 Billboard hot chart hits. Joining them on this historic tour are the British hard rock band Whitesnake and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience. The last stop on the tour was the newly opened FivePoint Amphitheater in Irvine, California. I missed Jason Bonham due to the usual nightmare that is Southern California traffic, but I made it in time for Whitesnake. The venue was already packed by them time Whitesnake was set to start the show.Whitesnake came out and started the show with Bad Boys. Whitesnake received a positive response from the audience as most if not everyone present was familiar with their music. Fronting the band was David Coverdale who at one point was the singer for British rock legends, Deep Purple. The second song performed was Give Me AllYour Love followed by Love Ain’t No Stranger. The band has great stage presence with not a dull moment in their performance. Even at 66 years old, Coverdale’s voice has not aged and he sounded amazing as he sang all the classics with precision. After a few more tracks, Whitesnake started to perform some of the their most famous songs that got the audience singing and dancing along. The first of the classics was Is This Love which reached number two on the US charts in 1987 making it their second-biggest hit in the US. The next classic is the band’s best-known song and one of the most well-known songs in the rock/metal community, Here I Go Again. The song reached number one on the US charts in 1987 and is often labeled as one of the greatest songs of the 80’s. Everyone was on their feet singing along and felt the good vibes throughout the venue. Ending their set was another one of the band’s most popular songs and their usual encore/ending song, Still of the Night. This song is widely considered one of the greatest hard rock songs of all time. Plenty of people were rocking out to this tune which included head banging and raising their horns. The show had to come to an end, but Whitesnake‘s career is still strong as they are set to release their thirteenth studio album in 2019 titled Flesh & Blood. Whitesnake thanked the audience for coming out and cleared the stage for the headlining band of the night.

Foreigner is hailed as one of the greatest bands of all time. Since their formation in 1976, only guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones is the band’s sole-remaining original member. He’s such a legendary songwriter that in 2013, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The lights went out and the packed venue erupted into a roar as the band members made their way to the stage one at a time and started the show with Long, Long Way from Home from their 1977 self-titled debut album. At first glance, you’ll notice that Mick Jones is missing on stage for whatever personal reasons. Still, the band got a loud welcome from the audience as smiles and singing were seen wherever you looked. The second song performed is one of the band’s most popular songs Double Vision from their second album of the same name. Foreigner always has great stage presence and is amazing live band to be witnessed by fans of all ages. Foreigner kept bringing out the classics as they played Head Games, Cold As Ice, and Waiting for a Girl Like You which is one of the band’s most successful songs reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard’s Rock Tracks. Foreigner took a quick break while singer Kelly Hansen introduced Mick Jones to the stage and had him start the very first song that the fans heard from their debut album, Feels Like the First Time. Urgent was next and is another one of the band’s most popular songs as well as one of the more fun songs performed live. Nothing gets the crowd excited quite like the signature sax solo from Thom Gimbel. Starrider is another single from the debut album and the song’s soothing tone was only matched at the end with fireworks raining down from the stage. Foreigner took a break on stage while drummer Chris Frazier performed a drum solo. Once his solo was over, he started performing the familiar bass drum intro to another one of Foreigner‘s most popular songs, Juke Box Hero. The song has over a million digital downloads and is certified platinum by the RIAA. The audience was surprised to see that Hansen was on top of a pedestal in the middle of the crowd singing the song. A lot of people were seen singing and dancing along to the song. Hansen went back to the stage and started talking to the audience about love and asked everyone to wrap their arms around the person next to them as they prepared to play their biggest hit and their only #1 song in the US and UK, I Want to Know What Love Is. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful songs ever written and hearing it live is one of the most beautiful things. Joining Foreigner on stage was the Rosewood Avenue Elementary School Choir as they sang the choir part towards the end of the song. It was time for the show to come to an end and so Foreigner played another one of their biggest hits Hot Blooded which the single has sold over one million units. To go with the song, Foreigner had fire coming out of the stage to go with the theme of the song which made it all the more exciting. Foreigner thanked the audience for coming out, bowed to the audience and left the stage as the audience cheered and thanked them for a truly spectacular performance by one of rock’s biggest bands.